A property limited company has the same basic obligations as any other company — statutory accounts, Corporation Tax, bookkeeping, Companies House filings. What changes is the layer of decisions sitting beneath those obligations: rental income, borrowing structures, repairs, acquisitions, disposals and the way profits eventually reach the people who own the company.

Choosing the right accountant for a property limited company therefore means finding someone who understands both limited company reporting and property tax, rather than one or the other. This post sets out what that looks like in practice — what experience matters, what records you need to keep, how the main taxes work, and when it is worth getting advice before a decision rather than after it.

Property ownership introduces decisions that a standard trading company simply does not face. The accountant needs to understand how rental income is reported, how borrowing costs are treated under Corporation Tax loan relationship rules, and how to distinguish repairs from capital expenditure. They also need to understand what happens when property is bought, sold or transferred.

That distinction between repairs and capital improvements is worth dwelling on because it affects taxable profit directly. A repair generally restores an existing asset to its previous condition. Capital expenditure normally creates, improves or substantially changes an asset. Replacing broken roof tiles or fixing a boiler may be revenue expenditure; building an extension or substantially enhancing the property is more likely to be capital. Modern materials do not automatically turn a repair into a capital improvement — if an old component is replaced with its modern equivalent because the original is no longer available, the work may still amount to a repair.

Getting that distinction right matters because ordinary repairs may reduce taxable property profits, while capital expenditure is generally dealt with differently and may become relevant when the property is eventually sold.

You should also keep evidence explaining larger works as they happen. A £700 repair to restore something that has failed may be treated differently from a £20,000 project that substantially improves the property — and those are examples of scale, not a monetary threshold that determines the answer.

There is no separate legal category of accountant that a property limited company must appoint. In practice, however, property experience makes a significant difference to the quality of advice you receive.

You would expect an accountant working with a property company to understand:

• Residential and commercial rental income
• Property finance and mortgage interest
• Repairs versus capital improvements
• Property purchases and disposals
• Corporation Tax
• Dividends and directors' loans
• Stamp Duty Land Tax where relevant
• Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings where relevant

One of the most significant differences between company and personal ownership concerns mortgage interest. For an individual residential landlord, the rules restrict relief for residential property finance costs. A company within Corporation Tax does not use that same calculation — qualifying interest is generally dealt with under the Corporation Tax loan relationship rules. HMRC explains this in its guidance on interest for property businesses subject to Corporation Tax. That does not mean every finance cost is automatically allowable; you still need to consider what the borrowing was used for and whether the relevant conditions are satisfied. Larger corporate groups can face additional interest-relief restrictions.

For core company compliance, OD Accountants' limited company accounts service covers statutory accounts, Corporation Tax and Companies House requirements alongside ongoing financial oversight.

You need records that let you see both the overall company position and what is happening within each individual property. That normally includes rent received, letting-agent charges, mortgage statements, insurance, professional fees, repairs, maintenance invoices and legal documents relating to purchases or disposals.

Directors should keep clear records of money introduced to or withdrawn from the company. Personal and company expenditure should not be mixed together and corrected at year-end.

Where several properties are held in one company, tracking income and costs by property gives you much more useful information than the statutory accounts alone. Property-level records let you compare gross rent, operating expenses, borrowing costs, maintenance, net cash flow and overall return. That becomes increasingly useful when deciding whether to refinance, retain or sell a property — one property may produce strong rental income while another is consuming cash through repairs, finance costs or vacancies, and you would only know that from property-level reporting.

It is also better to keep the records current rather than relying on a year-end bundle of bank statements and invoices. A sensible bookkeeping structure separates gross rent from expenses such as managing-agent fees, repairs and maintenance, insurance, utilities paid by the company, professional fees and finance costs. If several properties are held in the company, using separate tracking categories for each property makes management decisions considerably easier.

Accounting software is not compulsory simply because your company owns property, but software that allows income and expenditure to be tracked by property can make management reporting much more useful.

A property company normally has the same core filing obligations as other active UK limited companies. Annual accounts are due at Companies House nine months after the financial year-end. Corporation Tax is generally payable nine months and one day after the end of the accounting period, and the Company Tax Return is due twelve months after that period ends. First-year companies can have different dates, particularly where the first accounts cover more than twelve months.

As of September 2026, the main Corporation Tax rate is 25%. A 19% small profits rate applies to qualifying companies with profits of £50,000 or less, with Marginal Relief available between £50,000 and £250,000. Those thresholds can be reduced where associated companies exist. Property companies need an additional check: the close investment-holding company rules can affect access to the small profits rate and Marginal Relief. A company that exists wholly or mainly to invest in land that is commercially let to unconnected persons can fall outside that restriction, but you need to look at what the company actually does rather than assuming. Current rates are published by the government in its Corporation Tax rates and allowances guidance.

On the ATED position: Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings applies where a company or another non-natural person owns a UK dwelling valued at more than £500,000 under the relevant valuation rules. Relief can be available for qualifying property rental businesses, but the position still needs checking every year. You should not assume that because no tax is ultimately payable there is nothing to consider.

Companies purchasing residential property in England or Northern Ireland commonly face the higher residential SDLT rates. From 1 April 2025, those higher rates start at 5% on the first £125,000, with increasing rates on higher portions. Certain corporate purchases of residential property costing more than £500,000 can instead be subject to a 17% flat SDLT rate, although relief may be available in qualifying circumstances. Scotland and Wales have their own property transaction taxes.

When a company sells property at a profit, it pays Corporation Tax on any chargeable gain rather than Capital Gains Tax. You would start with the disposal proceeds and consider the original acquisition cost, qualifying purchase costs, enhancement expenditure and disposal costs. A second planning question then arises: if you want to extract the sale proceeds personally, that may create separate tax consequences.

Transferring personally owned property into a limited company is never a simple bookkeeping exercise. A transfer is a genuine property transaction and can involve Capital Gains Tax, SDLT, legal costs, mortgage changes, refinancing costs, lender approval, future Corporation Tax and personal tax when profits are extracted. Where property is transferred to a connected company, market value can be relevant for both Capital Gains Tax and SDLT purposes. Incorporation Relief may defer some or all of a Capital Gains Tax liability where the statutory conditions are met, but the ongoing tax position needs to justify the cost of getting there.

A limited company and its directors are separate taxpayers. Company money is not automatically your personal money, and the route by which funds leave the company has different accounting and tax consequences depending on how it is structured.

Funds may be taken as salary, dividends, repayment of money previously lent to the company, or a director's loan. Dividends require sufficient distributable profits and must be properly declared and recorded. A repayment of money genuinely owed to you as a director is different again. Directors' loan accounts can create separate tax issues if money is withdrawn and remains outstanding. That is why it is better to plan withdrawals before the year-end rather than categorising bank transfers afterwards.

For the 2026/27 tax year, the Dividend Allowance is £500. Dividend income above available allowances is taxed at 10.75% within the basic-rate band, 35.75% within the higher-rate band and 39.35% at the additional rate. Your actual liability depends on your wider income, so salary, dividends and any other personal income should be considered together before deciding how much profit to extract.

Being a company director does not, by itself, mean a Self Assessment return is automatically required in every case. A return may still be needed because of dividends, property income, other untaxed income or another reason under HMRC's Self Assessment rules. If you also own property personally, it makes sense to review your company and personal positions together. OD Accountants' landlord accounting support covers rental income, property tax and portfolio planning where personally held property sits alongside a company structure.

The more useful work from an accountant is often done before decisions are made rather than after. You would normally want a conversation before purchasing another property, transferring personally owned property, refinancing, bringing in another shareholder, paying a large dividend, selling a property or restructuring a group. An accountant can calculate tax after the event; the earlier conversation is where the real planning happens.